Avid Juicy 3 brakes - excessive lever travel

[caiss4]

I've got a Marin Nail Trail with Avid Juicy 3 brakes. I've noticed that the lever travel on the rear brake is such that it almost reaches the handle bars.

A friend suggested that the brakes need bleeding but I've just done a bit of reading on line and the SRAM site suggests that maybe the pads need advancing (by removing the rotor and wheel and gently closing the pads to 1mm). Has anyone tried this?

Also as I have a broken spoke I've removed the rear wheel and took a closer olook at the caliper. How thick should the pad be? My bike's done about 1500 miles from new and it looks like less than 0.5mm of brake pad left. Should I replace the pads?

By the way how do you get them out? Short of brute force they didn't seem to inclined to come out. Any hints and tips eagerly awaited.

[Ynox]

To remove the pads grab the tabs that protrude out of the pads with a pair of pliers and move them inwards, they'll then release.

Just today i've had a problem with one of my Juicy 3s, the master cylinder has started to piss fluid out so the lever travels pretty far with no feedback and will hit the bar. Might be worth checking for that. It's not too bad to fix (need to strip the master cylinder down though) but it's a pain so I'm replacing it with a HFX 9 for £25 in CRC's sale.

[AyBee]

I have these on my XTC A1 and they do seem to have a lot of travel in the brake levers, it does bother me slightly but I'm just going to ignore it, it's not a big issue IMHO.

Can't help with the other issues though, sorry.

[MrTom]

There is a small screw located behind the brake lever that will help stop the lever traveling as far. Its all in the manual if you have one. Its on sram site if not.

[mk1fan]

MrTom said:

There is a small screw located behind the brake lever that will help stop the lever traveling as far. Its all in the manual if you have one. Its on sram site if not.

No there's not. There is a reach adjuster that will move the lever towards or away from the handlebars but it is not a bottom out adjuster. Juciy Seven, Carbon and Unlimate's also have a Pad Contact Adjuster that addjusts the size of the fluid resevoir and adjusts the throw of the lever.

As for the existing long throw of the lever then if is most likely a combination of wornout pads and the brakes needing a bleed.

Search for Sramtech on You Tube and there is a very good guide for bleeding the brakes. Not sure if they have done one for changing the pads though.

Very easy to do though;
1. Remove wheel.
2. Using a largish flat bladed screw driver and with the old pads in place push the calliper pistons all the way back into the calliper body.
3. Pull the old pads and separator spring out of the calliper using the (long) tabs on the bottom of the pads. Gripping them in a pair of pliers makes this a lot easier.
4. Put the new pads together with the new separator spring sandwiched between them.
5. Push the sandwich into the calliper and push home to clip the pads top (short) tabs into the spring retainer clip on top of the calliper body.

ETA; You'll need the red separator insert to reset the callipers as you described but as they are self adjusting it really isn't something that is vital - nor will it help with your problem.

Edited by mk1fan on Monday 20th July 15:17

[caiss4]

Thanks for the information. I think I'll put a new set of pads in anyway and the advice above means I'll just be a bit more confident when I try to remove the old pads.

I'll wait and see before attempting to bleed the brakes.

[mk1fan]

It's worth checking out the Sramtech vids on You Tube before you do change the pads. There are about forty covering a lot of their products. They aren't that long and are aimed at the US market so are very clear and straight forward.